0:00
Hi friends, welcome back to the Grassroots Truth Cast. I’m Jean Valentino and we’ve had him on before, but I’ve asked him to come back. He’s

0:09
got his own polling company now well known in the national circles. You would think he was a MAGA supporter supporting

0:18
Trump. In many circles, he got that label and was accused of being that, but he’s not. He’s got some interesting

0:26
insight on what to bring forward with Mr. Donald Trump and how things have been going

0:34
in the um in the in the White House and for the nation in the last few months in particular. We’ve got a broader story on

0:42
his new company, The Honest Poll, and him right after this. Hey everybody, this is Mark Mitchell, head pollster of The Honest Poll, the Honestpole.com.

0:53
Make sure you go check out Grassroots Truthcast at grassroots truthcast.com with Jean Valentino and subscribe while you’re there. It’s a great show.

1:01
Some people watch opportunities pass by.

1:04
Others [music] create them. This is for the entrepreneurs, the dealmakers, the risktakers, and the relentless few who

1:13
refuse to settle for average. Corporate Menace Coffee Co. is built for early mornings, late nights, and the moments

1:20
that define careers. Specialty coffee roasted to order for you, the person with goals [music] too big for excuses.

1:28
Work harder. Think bigger. Corporate menace coffee. What are you waiting for? Fuel up now.

1:36
www.corporate [music] menace.com.

1:40
Hi friends, welcome back to the Grassroots Truth Cast and welcome my return visitor, Mr. Mark Mitchell of the Honest Poll. How you doing, Mark?

1:50
Great to be back. I really enjoyed our first conversation and you’re one of the nicest people I know, Jean. So, I’m really happy you had me back on.

1:57
Thank you, buddy. It’s um I kind of caught you at an interesting time. I know you had a longer history going back

2:04
to Donald Trump’s first term with um with the Ras Mucin reports and your your claim to fame as it grew from Ras Mucin.

2:15
You have branched out since then and no ill feeling. you’ve just like many of us moved on to uh other pastures and um I

2:23
commend you for that. I think the most interesting thing about Mark Mitchell, folks, is that uh uh he’s not going to

2:32
tell you what you want to hear. Rather, he’s going to tell you what you need to know. And Mark, uh what what do I mean when I say that?

2:42
Well, people have called me a black pillar and why do I doom so much? I turned on Trump and you know a lot of

2:50
these people have ulterior motives but my motive is to represent the American people like period and I was a longtime

2:57
Trump supporter. I was one of his earlier keyboard warriors. I spent thousand hours thousands of hours myself trying to get this guy into office

3:05
posting like frog memes and stuff like that. I mean, and the reason was is because I objectively was very tired of the establishment Republican party. And

3:14
I thought that his platform hid a lot of what America needed. And when I became a pollster, I was able to quantify that yes, they want the things that Donald

3:23
Trump ran on in both terms. They are sick of the establishment. They’re sick of foreign interventionalism. They want

3:30
all the illegals gone. They want higher wages. They want, you know, China reigned in. They want everything that Trump ran on. And the problem is is that

3:40
it’s all falling apart. And so a lot in a nutshell, you you heard him say when you were working with him that um he was

3:49
in there to drain the swamp. Is the swamp drained?

3:53
No. Which is why nobody believes the FBI. You can take any example of everything he’s ran on and it’s just not

4:00
like objectively America was desperate for real fixes. They needed somebody who was not just going to say the tired Republican talking points and actually do something.

4:09
Well, and still do.

4:11
Yeah, right. Because nothing has been fixed. And you could say, well, Trump’s done more than like, okay, I agree, but

4:19
after Biden, like the people were desperate. This was an existential election. And yes, we needed the border closed, but that was the bare the bare

4:27
minimum. We need 10 million people gone in wages higher to fight the affordability crisis. Uh we need every single one of the federal agents

4:35
completely gutted. We need all of this rampant hundreds of billions of dollars of federal fraud like completely reigned

4:42
in. And it’s like nice we have some task tasks forcing can’t even talk task forces here and there but at the end of

4:49
the day by the time that Trump begins to lose his political capital there the ball will not have been moved downfield

4:56
in a meaningful manner. And I think it’s because this Trump that we’re seeing in the last

5:02
year and a half is not getting the same populist feedback loop that he had on Twitter and that he’s surrounded himself

5:10
with people who do not have the best interest in the American people in their hearts. And you know what? Like that could be a black pill message for

5:18
people, especially if you’re still like hoping that Donald Trump pulls it out.

5:23
Uh, you know, we can get into it. I don’t think it’s going to happen. I think we’re three or four months away from a midterm in which he’s probably going to lose the house and they’re

5:32
going to go nuts and pick his administration apart, but I want to be optimistic here. And then I think, as you’ve said, your show is a grassroots

5:40
truth cast. There is a very big grassroots opportunity here to redefine

5:47
a political movement on the right that has the right components that it needs to beat the socialists. And what I’m

5:55
going to tell, it’s not like your granddaddy’s Republican values. It’s just not Ronald Reagan anymore. It’s got to be something different. And if the

6:02
Republicans don’t get it together, they’re going to be generational losers because people don’t want to hear, “Oh, well, capitalism has served us and we

6:11
can’t have any socialism.” Well, there’s a lot of nuance there and socialism is starting to win.

6:19
What socialism is starting to win. And uh I’m not too quick to point the finger at Donald Trump for that alone. However,

6:28
I do look at something that’s happened in your term of uh service. Um I’ve noticed that what you’re polling or

6:35
relying on for polling information is sometimes contrary to what they say.

6:43
The voter says one thing, but what do they actually do when they go in the voting box, right? and the voting booth.

6:50
Do you find consistency or inconsistency between those two notions?

6:58
So, increasingly you see a lot of inconsistency between sentiment and behavior. And sentiment is like you poll

7:06
a bunch of people and they say, “Yeah, I’m a Republican. I’ll vote for Republicans.” And then they just don’t show up. And that’s because, well, the de the Democrats are more enthused. And

7:15
then there’s a whole another layer of they had more advertising spend expenditure. They have an asymmetry and get out the vote operations. There’s all

7:23
these other layers. And looking at this midterm, it’s very hard to predict specifically about what is going to happen because you have a lot of things

7:31
happening like really kind of for the first time. The Republicans have never gerrymandered like this in the past in such a major way and people say, “Well,

7:40
the 15 to 20 seats pick up.” That’s all calculated based on a 2024 map with Donald Trump on the ballot. Donald Trump

7:48
is not going to be on the ballot. Then you say, well, the Republicans have a massive fundraising advantage, but no, Democrats have two and a half billion in

7:56
Act Blue. And then you have, who knows what’s going to happen with the election integrity stuff. Complete potential black swan there. And then you have this

8:05
Iran situation which is going to potentially be ironed out in some way either positive or negative between now

8:12
and the midterm. So there’s like if you look at the polling the industry says Democrat plus five with the redistricting that might be enough that

8:21
there’s like no gain or loss. It’s just the house is what it is.

8:25
But the Republicans have been underperforming all of the polling in every single one of the special elections. So there’s this added layer

8:33
of enthusiasm and a feeling especially among younger Trump voters of a betrayal. And again, like you said, this

8:42
isn’t all of Trump’s fault. Absolutely not. But Trump was supposed to use this Republican mandate and reform the

8:50
Republican party and turn it into the things that represent the American people. And so I think a lot of people are perceiving it as a lost opportunity.

8:57
And the polling supports that only 33% of people say that Donald Trump has kept his promises more than recent

9:04
presidents. And I think I forget the numbers. It’s a very small amount of people who say that this administration is better than the first Trump

9:12
administration. Only 60% of Republicans say this administration is better than the first one. So yeah, but there’s 60% that are saying

9:21
don’t give us socialism, which is really communism in disguise. I see um I I see

9:29
I see a transition like you’re suggesting, but um I don’t know. Is the pollster who’s winning? Is Trump really

9:39
winning or has he just gotten his arms around something so much bigger than he expected that

9:47
cleaning the swamp uh absolutely is it is is almost a quantum task with and

9:54
needs two more terms. What what what do you say?

9:59
I think we’re headed towards major collapse and upheaval. And I’m again I’m not trying to be provocative or

10:06
negative. I just I think historically with the whole fourth turning concept that when you see this amount of

10:13
institutional rot and where you see such a huge gulf between the values of the younger voters and the values of the

10:21
older voters and where the older voters are digging in very hard on an older system of values that the young people

10:28
perceive has failed them. And then when you see the the number of people who are just being left out of the economy, they don’t have anything to live for. They’re

10:35
not reproducing. they’re not buying houses and they’re being undermployed specifically because of all of the legal

10:43
and illegal immigration that eventually whether it takes a hard landing or whether it takes some kind of foreign

10:50
war there will be some type of upheaval and I kind of perceive the Trump the second Trump administration as sort of

10:57
like the American electorate’s attempt to take a step down a path that might ultimately lead to upheaval but is like an olive branch to the system we’re

11:05
trying to get this fixed. Here’s our guy. This is the avatar of the American people that need change. Like, work with

11:11
him. And I think he got co-opted. And it was always an uphill battle. I don’t know if he could have succeeded or not,

11:18
but I think to get the kind of change that we needed, Americans sort of understood that some rules were going to have to be broken.

11:28
Don’t you see don’t you see an alienation occurring from both parties?

11:32
I wouldn’t say it’s just Republicans saying he didn’t give us everything we needed. I see more of a alienation on

11:40
the uh look what’s going on just within the Democrat party itself. My words. Yeah.

11:45
The uh the what is it the DSN movement uh social democrat entity uh is

11:54
compromising um uh progressives of the early days when that was the extreme point. Now, progressives in Democrat

12:03
party are more of a of a common baseline when you look how farther farther left

12:10
uh they’ve gone with socialism and and communism. You know, these were factors that I can’t point to Trump being

12:18
responsible for. But I do think, and I’ve said this to you in our last interview, uh I say it before, I say it

12:26
again, uh we need to win this Save America Act coming up hopefully in the

12:33
next few weeks. And uh God willing uh filibuster or no filibuster, we have a Republican House and Senate that helps

12:42
Trump secure constitutional amendments necessary to weld this into a sense of permanency in

12:51
our um in our governance. So we’re not screwing around with nitwit legislators every year or two trying to put patches

13:01
on the tire that don’t work. We need a constitutional amendment that uh clearly provides a definition of who a citizen

13:10
is before we even talk about voter ID and who’s entitled to vote. And um I

13:17
think now is the most I think he’s pushed the envelope to getting us there.

13:23
And admittedly, it hasn’t been um comfortable. Frankly, I don’t know how the guy survives uh all the all the

13:30
stresses he’s put himself through, not to mention his family. But in your new role here with your new company called

13:37
the Honest Poll, what kind of polling are you going to do? If I run for Congress, you’re going to help me with a poll or you going to

13:45
work behind the scenes with the White House and trying to steer them in a positive direction whether they like your message or not?

13:53
Well, people who didn’t see my previous media, I’ve been the head pollster of Rasmus Reports for 5 years. Um, I helped rebuild the company. A lot of people

14:02
might be surprised to hear this, but our YouTube revenue actually saved us in 2024, and I made a couple other major changes in the company that kept us in

14:09
the black. Like, it was touchandgo. They they really didn’t have enough money when I started to compensate me, like basically much if anything. and they

14:18
were very happy with my commentary up until just recently uh it jeopardized their ability to collect the political action committee

14:26
check from a proTrump political action committee. So that’s a major no no for an independent pollster. Like I’m I’m not supposed to my credibility does not

14:35
survive if my company is taking money from the regime. And so I knew I had to leave. I spent the last month three

14:43
months leaving and getting my company ready. And then I got myself fired by criticizing the Trump administration against direct orders again at an

14:51
independent pollster. It’s not it’s not good. So now I’m the honest poll. This is something I always wanted to be and

15:01
it’s my own company. So I’m completely independent and I will not take any money from any political action committee or political party. That’s not

15:09
how you represent the voters because the entire polling industry except for like Rich Bars.

15:14
The way it works is polling is commoditized, but what is not commoditized is lying. Is having your credibility and then lying. It’s like a

15:23
prostitution industry is what it really is. And I will not do that. I want to represent the American people. So, we’re going to pull on public sentiment just

15:30
like Rasmusen does. But we I will have the editorial control. And we’re definitely going to go into this topic on socialism and capitalism as well. And

15:37
like you said again, Trump’s partly to blame, but in like a nuanced like way.

15:43
Like Trump very much did move the Overton window to the right, which is something the Republican party had not done. So he’s the one out there on True

15:52
Social talking about repealing Hart Seller, for instance, which would do wonders in increasing American wages and

16:00
potentially the amount of assimilation that happens. like it would change our culture in a way that would undo some of the past sins of Republican politicians

16:08
of the past, but there was never ever any chance of that happening. And so when you’re moving the Overton window,

16:15
right, and yet like so you have the acceptable discourse here, but the political what’s politically acceptable

16:23
here and they’re going farther and farther apart. This is a recipe for increased political friction and I think that’s partly what we’re seeing. So

16:31
there’s a lot of people who are like frustrated and again Trump can’t fully be blamed for the sins of the Republican party. The Republican party has now been

16:39
co-opted essentially by big donor interests, foreign interests. It’s becoming more and more clear every day.

16:45
And this is why when I hear this capitalism versus socialism false dichotomy like I like to present something more

16:52
provocative which is social socialism is winning with everybody under 50 now and capitalism has now lost the 50% position

17:01
it’s at 49%. That is new over the last two years it was in the like low 60s or something. it has completely collapsed and people were expecting Trump as a

17:10
businessman to come in and with the Republican party make these changes. But when they see the over overton window move right and then they get this

17:18
complete like let down, then they’re going to search for another alternative.

17:23
And I really do believe for many people, not the majority, but for many people, they look at the Republican party and say, “Well, that’s socialism for

17:31
corporations and foreign countries and for the rich and powerful.” And then the Democrats is socialism for for poor

17:38
people. I really do think that that’s the calculation they’re making. So what I’ve been pounding the table on for almost the last year has been the

17:46
Republican party needs to present an alternative. They need to be mature enough to say here’s what’s wrong with

17:52
our current system. And maybe we need better capitalism, but this is what it means and vote for us and we will give you that. And that’s not what they’re

18:01
doing at all. It’s just, you know, hands hands over ears, la.

18:06
The Democrats are evil. Socialism is evil. It’s all collectivism. You you vote for right collectivism or left collectivism. It’s all, you know, it’s

18:13
just they want their bread. The younger people have been left behind and nobody’s advocating for them. And eventually they’re going to have all of

18:21
the political power. It’s only a matter of time. So the Republicans are just if they don’t get in front of this, they’re just going to be completely left behind.

18:28
And I’m and and then you know people like me and Rich Bars are out there rubbing their nose in this reality and we get attacked. Oh, you’re a socialist.

18:36
Okay.

18:37
When you say get out in front of this, the Republicans better get out in front of this. What do you mean by that?

18:42
Well, so for instance, the Republican party is the party of oligarchy and corporatism and corporate welfare. You know what I mean? Like the Republic

18:51
Bernie Sanders would love you saying that.

18:53
Well, it’s true. I mean, like where’s the Fiser accountability? That was never going to happen, right? Why are we still using Roundup? Well, that was never

19:02
going to happen. It’s just like, why are we digging in on increased home values when the median first-time home buyer

19:11
age is 41 in this country? Well, the National Association of Realtors wants to keep and the homebuilders, we put a home builder in charge of our home

19:18
building department of the federal agencies. Like, of course, they’re want going to want the values higher. And so on almost every one of these things, it

19:25
makes life better for the younger people. I would even say feminism to a certain degree is supported by a lot of the older people in the Republican

19:33
party. And the younger people are turning on that really hard because it’s really screwed them over a lot. So just

19:40
like on almost every single thing, what you’re starting to see is younger people who completely distrust authority and

19:47
they want order. They just want things fixed. And people are going to project capitalism versus socialism, you know, DEI, woke versus fascist.

19:58
They’re going to project these things onto that. But what they really want is to be in charge and have things fixed. And they want like really a strong man.

20:06
They were begging for Trump to be a strong man. You remember that Napoleon Bonapart quote he made? He who saves his country violates no laws. It was something like 62%. I’m I’m It’s close.

20:17
like 62% of people under 40 said, “Yeah, okay. I agree with that. That’s a good quote. That makes sense.” And the older people were like, “No, no, that’s a bad

20:25
idea.” And like over and over again on arrests, it’s the younger people that want arrests. Blowing up narcoats, yep, blow up the narcoat. That’s great. We

20:34
should do more of that. Like deport the illegals. Yep. Ignore the judges. Yep.

20:38
That’s what the younger people want. I even did polling where we asked under 40 voters if they would support giving

20:45
control of our own legislative capability to an advanced artificial intelligence.

20:51
And it was close to 60% of under 40 conservatives were like, “Yep, this system, this constitutions failed.

20:58
Legislators co-opted. Let’s just put an AI in charge.” Almost half of under 40 conservatives wanted to put an AI in charge of world military. Like that’s

21:07
how crazy it’s gotten. So, and like the Republicans are just like, “Well, if we if we just try to be Ronald Reagan

21:14
harder, then everything will work out.” And you couldn’t be any farther from the truth there. Folks, we’re talking with Mark Mitchell, owner of his new

21:23
operation called The Honest Poll. Go to www.theonhonestpole.com.

21:30
Uh, that’s Mark’s website. I’m sure you can contact him directly through this site. Mark’s an interesting guy. blunt,

21:38
data oriented, anti-establishment conservative pollster who believes polling, the polling industry has uh

21:46
badly misunderstood the modern American electorate and who is willing to criticize Republicans as well as

21:54
Democrats uh when the numbers support it, when his data supports it. And he’s got more data coming in. And Mark, that brings up a

22:02
point just before we break. You got any do you have any polls coming out?

22:07
Uh, I’m going into the field with my first national poll tomorrow. So, we should have results back by the end of the week. The goal is to do them like at

22:15
least every 3 weeks and I’ll string the stories out on my website. We’re going to have some of them available for free. Some of them are behind a payw wall.

22:22
There will always be the full cross tabs available and we’re going to have like a pretty affordable, you know, payw wall price like for full polling cross tabs.

22:30
I’m really excited, but again, I have no uh editorial restrictions period whatsoever. So, I really want to go into

22:37
some wild stuff, some just personal things of interest. I want to hit this socialism versus capitalism thing very hard. And what I mean is just ask it

22:45
from a bunch of different directions to understand the context of what people really think because a lot of people think the system has failed, but like what parts of the system and how can you

22:54
speak to the parts that succeed? And what you’ll see is like people want large corporations punished. They want businesses that employ illegals rated.

23:02
They want the major tech companies to be antitrusted. And that’s something that like antitrust under Trump was going to do

23:10
until lobbyists got them all fired. And that’s going to be a huge story that comes out in September like and and they’re going to

23:17
So this is why I say the midterms is so predictable because there are real things. And again, was Trump involved in this? Like probably not. But it was

23:26
I would say I would say that um look at the anti-farma uh element that’s come out since co that

23:34
that has a disposition against a lot of the big pharmaceuticals that um uh allegedly were killing people with

23:43
unproven vaccines. I mean, we we have some serious issues going down that pa uh path right now that are rippling back

23:51
into the news headlines with Anthony Fouchy now uh giving testimony or refusing to give testimony before

24:00
Congress. We’re with Mark Mark Mitchell, the honestpole.com.

24:04
We’ll have more on a lot of other topics right after this.

24:07
It’s finally here. Our second annual mega sale. This sale only comes around once a year, so take advantage of the

24:14
best offers ever while you can. For example, save 50% on our Giza Dream bed sheets as low as $29.98.

24:23
And for the first time ever on TV, My Pillow mattresses and My Pillow mattress toppers as low as $99.98.

24:31
And you save 50% on our Lux Pure six-piece towel sets. Regular $69.98, now only $39.98.

24:39
And our bestselling standard, my pillows, regular $49.98, on sale for $17.98. Wait on it. Mega sale only $14.98.

24:50
So go to mypillow.com or call the number on your screen. Use this promo code to take advantage of our second annual mega

24:57
sale. But wait, there’s more. To make the mega sale even more special, when you order right now, your order is going

25:05
to ship absolutely free. Welcome back, Grassroots Truthcast. Gene Valentino here with Mark Mitchell uh from the honestpole.com.

25:14
Honest poll uh is his new um polling entity. Mark, what’s changed now that

25:21
you’ve moved off on your own in terms of your approach or your intended strategy going forward uh in future polling? Is

25:29
it what what’s going to make you different from the rest of them in your in your pack?

25:34
I’m going to piss everybody off. And that’s the only way that you know that I’m independent because what does that mean?

25:42
Well, like for instance, I know for a fact that when uh MAGA was turning on

25:49
having sugary beverages and SNAP that the American Beverage Association went to right leaning pollsters and lobbyists

25:58
and said, “You know what? We need help with that.” And so they went out and just lied and made up fake polling for two or three million bucks. got a a

26:05
major payday and uh went around and the problem was is that like they had taken it out at the federal level but the

26:12
states state ags Republican state ags Republican state legislators were going after SNAP and removing the sugary

26:20
beverages. So here you have Republican pollsters Republican lobbyists going after Republican legislators in Republican states and and doing the

26:28
corporate welfare and lying about what the American people believe. And so literally if you are in DC and you are

26:36
part of any political establishment, if you’re tied to a Republican party, you will be put or the Democrat party or

26:43
Democrat dark money or any of these organizations, you will be put in a situation where it’s expected that they’re purchasing your credibility for

26:50
a certain defined outcome to get something the opposite of what American people want. And there’s a very big

26:57
story coming out that I was tangentially involved with with where that happened on the Republican side with a major $2

27:05
million engagement where they were trying to convince Trump that MAGA supported a program with amnesty. And

27:14
that is not the case. That’s not People want them all gone. Now, America, like to be more nuanced, Americans don’t like the optics of women getting shot in the

27:23
face with tear gas canisters, but there are ways, as we all know, like federal everify mandates and rating employers of

27:30
legal aliens. All of these things are off the table for the Trump administration.

27:36
And so everybody is stuck in this horrible situation that makes me sick to my stomach where they’re either

27:43
completely upset at the lack of more deportations or they’re trying to put a big smile on numbers that are just like

27:51
not that great. And it’s like what a situation to be put in when ultimately lobbyists and corporations are the ones

27:59
that determine what happens. So I will not be involved in in any of that. Most of my money will come from advertising and will hopefully come from the people who support me when I get my website.

28:08
Pay wall vault.

28:09
What I find so interesting is that you know in your business it’s a clear distinction between getting paid by your

28:18
client who’s looking for a certain outcome. Let’s face it. And then so you

28:26
you’re trying to appease what your customer wants to hear when in

28:33
fact what he needs to know might be the antithesis antithesis of what he wants

28:41
to hear that he’s paying you for. And and I think what we’re going to find

28:49
is that in the context of what you just said, there are going to be many people who are going to realize as this whole

28:58
social democrat nuance evolves that this is less about Trump and more

29:06
about how we’ve behaved as a nation. I mean, the Democrat party going off on this

29:14
tangent can’t blame you for the polling you give them that tells them what they don’t

29:21
want to hear. Am I making sense? This is business as usual in Washington DC.

29:27
That’s what this is. Washington DC is occupied territory. It’s occupied by corporations, foreign government

29:34
interests, uh, NGO dark money, and and intel agencies. Let’s let’s be honest.

29:39
Also, the intel agent and it’s like on the Democrat side, it’s the same thing.

29:44
And the only unfortunate thing for Republicans is that often on the Democrat side, what the voters want actually align with what the Democrat

29:52
establishment wants. Like for instance, Democrat voters have been tricked into thinking that there’s like pervasive global warming and the Democrat

30:00
establishment wants a Green New Deal. So those two things meet up. But like on the Republican side, Republican voters

30:07
want things like higher wages. And there is no chance in hell that the Americans for Prosperity or the KO Institute or

30:16
any of these organizations are going to fund anything that makes it look like the government should have positive wage

30:24
policies. And I, you know, wasn’t that long ago, a hundred years ago, when Teddy Roosevelt like ran on increased

30:31
wages and trust busting and and standing up for the American people. And so there was a huge opportunity and and our situation aligns, especially the

30:40
immigration situation aligns very closely with what was happening in Teddy Roosevelt’s America. And it’s like I don’t know the rest of the Washington DC

30:48
context, but he was a man of principle that stood up for the things that he believed in, and that was for the American voter. And that’s just not happening here. And again, it’s like,

30:57
yes, there are some problems with Trump, but it’s it’s who he’s surrounded with.

31:01
He’s constantly um exposed to basically what what I would say complete like

31:09
being co-opted by Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. And people do, wouldn’t you, how would you compare?

31:13
I understand what you’re saying, [clears throat] but how does that compare to a Rex Tillerson, a Mad Dog

31:20
Maddox, uh Anthony Scaramucci? I could name three or four more. They were they

31:27
were difficult sidekicks for Trump to have. Now, Trump was advised to bring these people on.

31:34
It turns out that they were bad picks from Trump’s point of view. The hell with you, he says to himself. Next, if I get reelected, I’m picking my own team.

31:43
his new team with uh Pete Hegsth and Rubio alone, not to mention Scott Besson, have really shown to be a hell

31:51
of a a good circle of uh workerbees around him. But my point is back then there was so much complicity behind Trump’s back.

32:03
I don’t know how the man held it together, but they they says, “Ah, people can’t work for Trump.” Well, I would I’ve as a CEO of a company, I’ve

32:12
had to fire some people like that who work at cross purposes with your vision.

32:17
Now, I’m getting hired by the board of directors and the and the shareholders to deliver a an a solution, a an

32:26
objective. And if you’ve got people surrounding you that are in conflict with that, and I would submit most of America doesn’t see

32:35
that sort of bad behavior. Where do you think this is going in the 2026 midterms?

32:42
Well, let me respond to what you said and then I’ll I’ll give you my 2026 and I’ll probably piss some people off when I say this too, but in many ways, in my

32:50
opinion, just being an outside observer, I think the first Trump administration was much more successful. Why do I think that? Well, the bar was lower. The opposition was certainly not prepared.

33:01
And in my opinion, Trump had the right leaders internally in the White House.

33:05
Was everybody the right leader? Like no, Chris Christie is your transition head.

33:09
Pretty you know, like stuff like that. Like John Bolton, like why?

33:12
Like why’d you do that? And I and like each of these things he has a reason.

33:16
And you had your characters like Scaramucci. But I think you had folks like Steve Bannon like keeping the White House focused on the underlying like

33:24
goals of the the administration. And you had Trump on Twitter being a very important like engaging in his base,

33:32
learning from the the feedback loop that is social media. I think that was a very important thing. And what you would see in the first 100 days specifically was a

33:40
lot of content that was being put out of like, hey, the bar was low, but look at all these things we accomplished. And that was like, wow, like it really took

33:48
an outsider. This is exactly what we needed. So much so that by 2020 the economy was turning around and we had

33:56
China on the ropes. Like they released CO for a reason. They unleashed Biden in my opinion a CCP creature on purpose.

34:06
The statism of the Biden administration and the weaponization of cost against the American middle class. I think this is all a China operation to be honest with you.

34:15
But now people see more of that Mark. If people see more of that, I

34:21
would think the effect would be a look, I don’t know if I like Donald Trump or not, but I’m not abandoning ship on this

34:30
guy now because he’s clearly opened up Pandora’s box. Look what he did with Elon Musk on Doge alone. uh the the the

34:40
the opening up of inefficiency of government has created a ripple effect on on the continuation of that

34:47
of that uh investigation across all departments and divisions of government.

34:52
My point here is um we I think the American people I was expecting an a different answer

35:01
from you today. I thought you were going to say based on your polling that uh it’s likely by surprise that more

35:10
Republicans would be aligning with Trump. Not because he’s um so good, but

35:17
because the other side is so bad. I’m staying with what I’ve got. That does not work anymore.

35:23
You’re saying that you’re saying that’s not true.

35:26
In fact, people are going to it’s going to have a negative effect. everything they’re doing now with the right I think

35:33
will have blowback. So you have you have you have the beginning of the Trump second administration was very effective the first two months. Now we could

35:41
quibble about how Trump should have handled the judges and how there should have been a legislative response and how the Republicans have ultimately failed

35:50
and like legislatively. And I think Trump does bear a lot of blame for that because he over the last 10 years has

35:57
not been very aggressive about getting America first legislators in. And I’m sorry there’s no fix for that. Like unfortunately that’s just one of the

36:05
things where he made his bed and now he laid in it. Like we’re talk you were talking about the nuclear option. I agree. I think the Republicans should

36:13
use the nuclear option but they only have 25 votes in the Senate and that’s just reality. So it’s it’s just never going to happen. And so when he’s out

36:20
there railing against it, it just looks ineffectual. But now it’s like, okay, you remember Doge was talking about

36:27
auditing the Department of Defense, going into Fort Knox, shutting down the IRS. Like, there were some major things, right? And then Trump very famously broke.

36:36
Couldn’t be any more major than trying to remove us the Senate from our governance and closing down the Pentagon.

36:46
Well, I’m just saying like Doge, I think, was like I described earlier where Trump was effective in moving the Overton window, right, and convinced a

36:54
lot of people that most of our annual expenditures are fraudulent, but then not giving them the payoff. And so, if

37:01
you’re the frog is currently in a pot of water on a stove, okay? And the way I think it kind of worked is like, you know, Americans felt the temperature

37:09
going up. They’re like, I don’t know what’s going on. And then Trump comes along and says, “Well, you’re on a stove. Like look at there. There’s the

37:16
dial. Like you obviously.” And then Biden comes along and turns the dial up.

37:21
And we’re all starting to boil. And so everybody’s like desperate. Trump, Trump, Trump, we’re boiling here. You got to come back and turn the dial down.

37:29
And now they’re looking at him. They’re like, “He’s talking about the dial. We all see the dial. Like why aren’t you turning the dial down?” And it’s like,

37:37
Biden turned the dial up is not going to work. It’s like, no, we’re about cooked

37:44
here. [laughter] Like, you know what I mean? Like, we and and I have a whole body of polling knowledge that supports

37:51
supports this. Like, 72% of America is concerned that we’re living in a police state. Also, 72% of America is angry at

37:59
the level of waste, fraud, abuse. 76% support Doge style audits of every federal agency. You know, like it’s just

38:07
over and over and over again. Even though the elections are very close nationally, and obviously there’s a lot of election fraud,

38:14
overwhelmingly Americans are pro-reform, uh, anti- big spending, anti- big business. They want deportations. They

38:23
want law and order. And the Republican party is not that party right now. They are not. They And even if they talk that

38:32
way, they’re not proving it. But like then you hear some of them talk and it’s like,

38:40
you know, Mike Johnson will get up there and and just talk about how great it is that this is the government that removed LGBT,

38:48
not understanding that the woke stuff was a battle that the culture war was fighting three or four years ago to enable a Trump win and that they’ve

38:56
already moved past that because they want major reforms.

39:00
And it’s like and that’s like Trump in his election integrity speech even had a line about LGBT stuff and you’re getting

39:08
to the point where everybody under 40 is like like so what? You know what I mean?

39:13
Like or we had an LGBT person take out Charlie Kirk and he didn’t do anything.

39:18
Like that’s the kind of reaction you’re getting and it’s because they perceive Trump especially the under 40s went from a 60% Trump approval to like 35%.

39:28
Yeah. And the the sentiment I hear are words like rugpole. And so they’re not going to forget that. And what you’re going to see is an you’re gonna what

39:36
what you’re really seeing is a political landscape that is primed for a political horseshoe where younger people will say, “Well,

39:44
hey, my values aren’t that different than the left people under.” It’s really under 50. It’s basically everybody who grew up with the internet is looking at

39:52
the people in governance and saying, “Well, they have this older value set like I don’t care about Israel. I don’t care about the word capitalism. I don’t

40:00
care about XYZ. And what you see is like a Chuck Schumer is closer to a Mitch McConnell. And you’re going to see maybe

40:08
an AOC is closer to an outsider economic populist on the right.

40:13
Or do you see it or do you see it as a Gen Z crowd just not trained on historical with any historical knowledge

40:20
of what preceded us? Here’s the beauty about public opinion is that you might have a valid point, but it’s the older

40:28
generation that taught these kids. So, whose fault is that?

40:31
And in this case, what did the older generation teach Gen Z these last 10 years?

40:38
So point one is that okay well like yeah you’re right potentially but then if you try to preach to them it’s not going to

40:47
have the attended effect which is what you what you’re seeing is that there’s currently a very a lot of foreign

40:54
interference dollars going in I don’t think this is controversial to say there is a this is the most pure ground to have a

41:04
conversation on is with a pollster like you who has a very interesting take on it. Uh like I said to you earlier, I

41:13
don’t need to be right. I I just need to bring the thought out and I’d like the I’d like not only to know what the

41:21
public thinks, but what are the facts that support it either way? Here’s a question for you.

41:26
I don’t see you pounding a glass of whiskey and you’re not pulling your hair out. What? Like I’m I’m thrilled by the level of chaos that’s coming because I

41:34
think that there’s a lot of opportunity there. Well, it’s going to keep you busy.

41:39
Well, certainly. Well, our like our views are going to go up like it is going to happen, right?

41:46
What’s what’s changed? What’s the actual 2024 polling record for Mark Mitchell verse

41:55
the other major pollsters? uh you’re you know in this in the business side of things we compete by differentiating.

42:02
What makes you different from six other pollsters not like them? What what are you going to pitch going forward for

42:09
2026 that will be unique and what we should look for from a Mark Mitchell poll?

42:15
So I I come back to I think my unique selling proposition is I’m willing to trash everybody and I think that my takes are objective and based on fact.

42:25
Although we did do pretty well in the 2024 cycle, Rasm Wilson’s track record has always done like pretty good. We’ve had some bad years like 2018. That

42:33
wasn’t me and that was a tough one because so many people were like amped up about Trump being a Russian asset. Uh in the 24 cycle, I think what’s most

42:42
important is how much polling we put out, especially on a state polling level. We put out more polls than anybody except for Morning Consult. And it was just me, not a one billion

42:50
company. Uh we got I think 10 out of the 11 states called within the margin of error. Six out of the seven

42:58
battlegrounds called in the right direction. One of them was Michigan. We were like a point and a half off or something like that. And our average

43:05
polling bias in the states was under two points, like 1.8 I think it was. And uh

43:12
on a national level, our final poll was 2.4. We were within a half a point until California kept counting. But I think

43:20
the most important thing is that in no poll in not one single poll in the entire 24 cycle did we have Kla Harris

43:27
winning. And so that was important because we were the only ones putting out consistent numbers on a weekly basis and everybody else was trying to show

43:36
Kla Harris up like seven points. So what happens is you have this period of massive lying over the August and September area and then at the end

43:44
they’re like well yeah Trump’s probably going to win and so they all bring their numbers closer and then all the accuracy is based on your final call. Well it’s

43:52
like no if you followed Rasmos and you knew for the entire cycle that Trump was going to win.

43:58
Yeah. you know, uh, if you follow it, I’m having trouble understanding

44:06
how the election got as close as it did when the polling seemed in that in that chapter in time to indicate a much more

44:16
a much a much larger spread. um any predictions about um candidates coming

44:22
up in 2026 or 2028 and where you’re going with your polling.

44:30
So in 2026, I can just guess right now, but so much stuff could happen. The last generic

44:37
ballot I did was Democrat plus 4, which would actually mean Republicans have a chance picking up seats. I don’t believe it though because it’s been a few weeks.

44:46
It was around July 4th. There was this sort of like Iran memorandum of under standing like bounce. Really good

44:54
pollsters like Baris and Emerson are putting out Democrat plus 10 right now.

44:58
So if that’s the book ends we’re seeing somewhere between like 2018 or a slight Republican pickup,

45:07
but there’s all these confounding factors like the amount of money that ACT Blue has continued to raise and we haven’t arrested them or stopped the

45:14
Chinese money from pouring in. uh and to me is a big issue. I’d like to have you back to focus on that. To me, the

45:22
illegal NOS that have been funding uh candidates in our nation’s um governance uh up to now is the biggest uh

45:31
compromise in our uh constitutional republic. But in keeping with your point, you were talking about Susan

45:39
Collins, Senator Susan Collins up in Maine. Uh she’s she’s always been underpled up there and yet she springs

45:47
forward at the finish line eight points ahead in the final election. Uh what’s going on with the pollsters that they’re missing the mark up there?

45:57
So, the trend I’ve personally seen is that every single special election since the the November 2024 is the Republicans

46:06
have underperformed where Trump was in 2024. A lot of that is because the younger people aren’t turning out to vote. In my polling in November 2024,

46:15
Trump picked up 40, depending on the poll, 40% of his support was from independents and crossover Democrats.

46:21
And so it’s like you start attacking workers, you start attacking Epstein people, those people are out because they don’t have a reason to come and

46:29
vote for Republicans. And incidentally, in the Jack Chitterelli poll that we had uh where we were closer than everybody else, Chitterelli won with voters on

46:38
over 40 and Kla Harris was successful at bringing out 90 or sorry, Cheryl was

46:46
successful at bringing out 90% of Kla Harris’s votes from 2024. Republicans only got 70% of Trump’s vote. So like

46:55
that is the critical thing that is not necessarily showing up in the polling because it requires somebody to adjust

47:02
their turnout models. And so there is the case to be made that Republicans will underperform.

47:09
And then there’s also the big outlier of how effective the Democrats are going to be with their money or what unforced errors Trump makes between now and

47:17
November. But even if the Republicans keep a 5149 Senate lead, they don’t have the Senate. Like we all know that. And

47:24
they don’t have the Senate today to be honest with you. So the the big football is the House.

47:31
And I people say, “Oh, the map favors Republicans. Oh, look at all this gerrymandering.” Like I don’t know. I would call it a coin flip now with a lot

47:40
of like quantitative qualitative reasons that the Democrats are going to outperform. in which case what you’re

47:46
going to see is just two years of I mean they’ve been saving it up. They’re gonna they’re gonna have Todd Blanch on the stand answering for the Epstein

47:55
Transparency Act. They’re going to pull out Trump’s antitrust people. They’re going to pull out Trump’s pardon people.

48:02
They’re going to they’re going to walk because remember how much damage they did with just one simple call that they recorded from Zalinsky. So this is going

48:10
to be think well it ties to a deeper point you touched on and I hope we get a chance to talk about it in the future and that’s

48:17
the coternimous issue involving the equal district or redistricting that uh affects these election maps and the

48:25
balance that’s needed to fairly um to fairly have this anequitable Perry

48:33
pursue each district throughout the nation being equal as much as possible in population uh and um getting away

48:43
from some of these false narratives about what a district should be compromised uh what should compromise an electoral

48:52
district. And um I I I think there’s room for constitutional amendments because there’s too many bad actors that

49:01
are just going to force you and I to be busy uh each and every year talking about their bad behavior and what they

49:08
gerrymandered and um and and cause to hurt the ethicacy uh of an election.

49:15
Folks, we we’re out of time. But we’re with Mark Mitchell of the Honest Poll. Honestpole.com.

49:24
Check it out. Mark, you got two minutes.

49:26
Give a plug out to the world on the Honest Poll. How do they pay for your service? Where do they subscribe? What What can they find out about you?

49:35
I don’t know if I have a two-minute pitch prepared. So, the honest poll.com is a splash page right now. It’s got a sign up for my free Substack newsletter.

49:44
I would really appreciate people sign up for that. And I’m not going to spam you every day. This is just like when real content comes out. Like I said, I’m

49:52
doing my first national poll, so by next week we should have the site up. It’ll have a payw wall. Some of the stuff will be paywalled, some of it won’t. Some of

49:59
it will be my commentary. Others will be questions that you’ll find nowhere else because remember, like I was the one in Rasmus and we were asking about the

50:07
vaccine safety. We were asking about unexplained deaths. We were asking about election integrity. And everybody else in the industry didn’t want to touch any of that because they knew that the

50:15
political action committee checks would not follow. The donor, the sponsorships, the money from the corporations would not follow. How can you maintain your

50:22
lobbying job if you’re pissing off Fizer? And that’s something that I’m ready to do is piss off Fizer. So, nothing else like it. Honest pole co is

50:31
the main account at Twitter and then my personal account is uh Honest Pollster.

50:36
And I think there’ll be a lot of people willing to subscribe when just from your last statement a minute ago, uh they’re

50:42
looking for average citizens to step up and support good causes, good people. uh you’re a good cause and um some of the

50:51
some of the leaders we’ve had um generationally 20, 30, 40 years in office certainly goes against the um the

51:01
the premise that I signed into when I ran for Congress and that’s term limits.

51:05
Uh being able to boy, there’s a poll question right there. renew the popular term term limits in the context of um

51:14
uh uh of polling uh uh pollster, excuse me, of lobbyists and see and and see what you what you get. That would impact

51:24
how lobbyists lobby and fund some of the elected folks if they know their candidates only around one more term, let’s say.

51:32
Yeah. Any any closing comments, Mark Mitchell?

51:35
No, you’re right. Almost all that’s like basically a 70% position. 70% roughly assume that their elected leaders are

51:43
getting ill like ill-earned gains from their position. Another 70ish% support term limits. It’s like pretty much across the board. And so that’s the

51:52
opportunity though is if you can as a leader believably tap into that 70% of people who want America fixed and then

51:59
there’s the 25 or 30% who are just happy when Democrats win. It’s like who are these people? You know, the sheep. But

52:07
it’ll get fixed. Like I’m I’m optimistic. I just it’s it’s going to be another rough couple years, I think.

52:13
Well, I’m not sure where we’re talking to you from, but I think it’s time to let you go back and get more of that suntan.

52:22
Looks like you’ve been on the beach. Yep. And I’m going right back.

52:26
Thank you, Mark, for joining us here today on another episode of Gene Valentino’s Grassroots Truth Cast. And thank you folks for joining us. Please

52:34
subscribe. If you want to reach out to um uh Mark Mitchell, you can do so directly. The honestpole.com

52:42
or come back through us, subscribe at genevalentino.com.

52:46
We’re pushing out great episodes like this weekly. And um and when you do, just you you can also provide comments

52:53
and criticisms and your insight. And uh when you do, we will um we will if there’s anything you’d like us to make

53:00
sure Mark needs to know about, we’ll make sure he gets it. Thank you again for another episode of Grassroots Truthcast. See you soon. Relationships

53:09
matter because people buy people, and that’s why I buy Eddie Xarin Insurance of the Xarin Insurance Agency in

53:19
Pensacola, Florida. a family-owned business with over 50 years in the business. And they treat people the right way. From homeowners insurance to

53:27
contractor’s insurance, condo insurance, commercial insurance, all the different coverages that are out there, and of

53:34
course, auto insurance. They’ve got you covered. They worry about you first.

53:41
You’re more than a policy number. You’re a person who they’re watching out for, not when the sun is shining, but after

53:48
the hurricane has left. If you want real service with real savings, contact Eddie

53:55
Zuran at the Eddie Xarin Insurance Agency. www.zarinins insurance.com.

54:04
Give them a call today. You’ll be glad you did when you do.

54:10
[music]